T govt wades into citizenship row, says it must have a say

Hyderabad: The state government on Tuesday made a sudden entry into the

citizenship

row between Vemulawada MLA

Chennamaneni Ramesh

of the TRS and Union ministry of home affairs (MHA) and sought four weeks from the court to file its counter in the matter.

Justice Abhinand Kumar Shavili gave the state two weeks to explain its case. Originally a native of Karimnagar district, Ramesh was working in

Germany

prior to his entry into Telangana politics a decade ago. He acquired German citizenship and was living there. For returning to India and to enter the political fray here, he had to re-acquire his Indian citizenship. He applied for the same and secured it and has been winning as MLA for the last three consecutive terms.

Adi Srinivas, Congress candidate, who was defeated by Ramesh, moved a complaint against the latter saying that the TRS MLA suppressed vital information about his mandatory stay in India before re-acquiring his Indian citizenship. He filed a separate election petition against Ramesh with the hope that he would be declared as a winner in the event of Ramesh getting disqualified on grounds of citizenship.

Ramesh’s counsel has been saying that he has relinquished his German citizenship voluntarily. Earlier, the high court has asked the central government to take a liberal view of the matter as the Citizenship Act deals with its citizens.

“It is better placed to tell whose continued presence is harmful and whose presence is not harmful,” state’s additional advocate general J Ramachandra Rao argued. The case will come up for hearing after two weeks.